Installing them is frightfully easy. Once you've downloaded or otherwise acquired a .package, first of all right-click it and choose Properties. Go to the Permissions tab and tick 'Is executable' (or tick all three boxes under the Execute heading). Now click OK.

Double-click the file and follow the instructions.

If you're asked for the 'system password', that will be the root password you made during install, or if you're running Ubuntu or otherwise didn't set up a root user, it's your password.

Peter Upfold is a technology enthusiast from the UK. Peter’s interest in Linux stems back to 2003, when curiosity got the better of him and he began using SUSE 9.0. Now he runs Linux Mint 9 on the desktop, runs a CentOS-based web server from home for his personal website and dabbles in all sorts of technology things across the Windows, Mac and open source worlds.